If you could only fit ONE soap in your cabinet, and it had to go H2H with Martin de Candre...

[Mong.]

If you could only fit ONE soap in your cabinet, and it had to go H2H with Martin de Candre...what would it be?

I am compelled by life circumstance to aggressively downsize my collection. Unfortunately several years of collecting resulted in such an abundance of products that I haven't needed to purchase anything in years. I have the itch to try something new. If I might solicit recommendations, I am in pursuit of a single hard soap to replace my entire soap and cream collection.

My fairly broad conditions or parameters are these:

-using MdC as a guide, cost is fairly unrestricted;
-hard soaps are preferred for their longevity, as this will last me years;
-I am hard of smell, so scent is mostly irrelevant for me;
-I value slickness, glide and skin protection over skin nourishment; and
-I get all of my skincare from post-shave products, so skin drying isn't a problem and fancy add-ons don't add much value.

For clarity, I like the feeling of skin protection and slickness from TOBS Jermyn St sensitive although it is a cream. I like it more than Castle Forbes. I like the thickness and cushion of Mike's Natural Soap and Panna Crema. Tabac is an all-around strong performer. I won't consider anything marzipan because I have a seldom-used tub of P.160 Tipo Duro stashed in my bar fridge that will be covering my thirst for adventure in perpetuity after this purchase.

Particularly interested in comparison to Saponificio Varesino, B&M, Ariana & Evans.

If no strong alternative contenders emerge, I will just buy MdC but it's out of stock at blade.net.au in the versions I am interested in.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[silverlifter]

B&M and A&E are soft soaps; so their longevity is nothing like MdC or SV,

If you truly want hard soaps, then SV is the obvious option. Great soaps, but their scents can be polarising (cologney), Otherwise:

• Canada Soap (unscented only)
• Cyril Salter
• DR Harris
• Razorock's What the Puck
• Speick (stick only)
• Tabac

Of these, I would recommend Speick for it's slickness, then Razorock and DR Harris.

 

[LesC]

Only IMHO, I’m on a “vintage” kick at present and can’t see myself changing anytime soon. I’m using only Old Spice or Yardley Green label (Griffith Shaving 3-4 NOS tubs left) While this is happening MDC, SV, Areffa, Eufros etc etc sitting. SWMBO reckons “if only using 2 why keep the others and do you need 2 not 1” life is so so cruel at times Good luck my pick for modern if not MDC, then SV, Tundra Artica my fav to date

 

[Gargravarr]

If you could only fit ONE soap in your cabinet, and it had to go H2H with Martin de Candre...what would it be?

I am compelled by life circumstance to aggressively downsize my collection. Unfortunately several years of collecting resulted in such an abundance of products that I haven't needed to purchase anything in years. I have the itch to try something new. If I might solicit recommendations, I am in pursuit of a single hard soap to replace my entire soap and cream collection.

My fairly broad conditions or parameters are these:

-using MdC as a guide, cost is fairly unrestricted;
-hard soaps are preferred for their longevity, as this will last me years;
-I am hard of smell, so scent is mostly irrelevant for me;
-I value slickness, glide and skin protection over skin nourishment; and
-I get all of my skincare from post-shave products, so skin drying isn't a problem and fancy add-ons don't add much value.

For clarity, I like the feeling of skin protection and slickness from TOBS Jermyn St sensitive although it is a cream. I like it more than Castle Forbes. I like the thickness and cushion of Mike's Natural Soap and Panna Crema. Tabac is an all-around strong performer. I won't consider anything marzipan because I have a seldom-used tub of P.160 Tipo Duro stashed in my bar fridge that will be covering my thirst for adventure in perpetuity after this purchase.

Particularly interested in comparison to Saponificio Varesino, B&M, Ariana & Evans.

If no strong alternative contenders emerge, I will just buy MdC but it's out of stock at blade.net.au in the versions I am interested in.

Thanks for any suggestions.

I like MdC too, but it really doesn't qualify as a hard soap. If you poke it with your finger, you'll make a hole. It lasts a long time because there's so much of it in a jar. That said, if you like MdC Original, you'll most likely appreciate Le Père Lucien Traditionelle. Performance is at least equal, at a cheaper price.

I still love my vintage/NOS Yardley and Valobra, but I've told myself I'm not going to pursue that avenue any more once my stock is gone. (No guarantees that I'm listening, though. )

I would have agreed with @silverlifter about recommending D.R. Harris, but my current puck of Windsor just isn't as good performance-wise as previous ones, so I don't think I shall replace it. Much as I like my milled soaps, finding good ones now has become harder, so I'm not going to bother.

 

[SpeedyPC]

Canada Soap (unscented only)

Are you referring to this soap??

 

[thorpef1]

I would add in mitchels wool fat (if you can find it).
I've only used the old-school tallow soap (yet to open my vegetal pucks) but MWF is my reference soap when it comes to performance and feel.
SV is also up there but I have a very soft spot for MWF.

 

[Gargravarr]

Particularly interested in comparison to Saponificio Varesino, B&M, Ariana & Evans.

I have no opinion about SV (other than that the scents are just too much for me) but Eufros blows both B&M and A&E way into the next postcode. Mañuel has both tallow and veg formulae, of which I have only tried the veg, and it is just superb.

 

[silverlifter]

Are you referring to this soap??

Yep